Trump Presses Congress for Clarity Act Passage to Secure U.S. Crypto Leadership

President Donald Trump urged Congress on Wednesday to pass digital asset market structure legislation, telling crypto executives and top financial regulators at a White House summit that enacting the Clarity Act is vital to keeping American financial technology ahead of China.

“Now we need Congress to take the next step by passing the Clarity Act, a fair version of the Clarity Act,” Trump said. “It’s a very, very powerful structure legislation which will keep us ahead of China, keep us ahead of everyone else. We’ll open the door to the next wave of innovations and innovators.”

The Clarity Act, a sweeping crypto market structure bill that would establish federal rules for digital assets and clarify the SEC and CFTC’s respective authority over the industry, is expected to return to the Senate floor in September after lawmakers left for their August recess without holding a procedural vote. Republicans still need roughly six Democratic votes to reach the 60-vote threshold.

Reaching that 60-vote filibuster threshold requires Republican leaders to negotiate key concessions on consumer protection disclosures and stablecoin reserve backing with Senate Democrats. The legislative framework builds on previous bipartisan statutory proposals, such as the Lummis-Gillibrand Responsible Financial Innovation Act, which aimed to divide oversight by granting the Commodity Futures Trading Commission explicit jurisdiction over digital commodities while leaving securities compliance to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The White House meeting included SEC Chair Paul Atkins, CFTC Chair Michael Selig, and White House crypto advisor Patrick Witt, alongside financial leaders such as Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev, Nasdaq CEO Adena Friedman, Intercontinental Exchange CEO Jeff Sprecher, Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi, Chainlink co-founder Sergey Nazarov, Blockchain.com CEO Peter Smith, Gemini co-founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, and a16z crypto founder Chris Dixon.

Trump told the gathering that clear federal regulations are necessary to stop crypto companies from moving operational headquarters overseas, contrasting his administration’s strategic Bitcoin reserve, digital asset stockpile, and central bank digital currency ban against prior regulatory enforcement actions. He specifically pointed to CFTC Chair Selig’s ongoing negotiations to bring offshore decentralized perpetual futures exchange Hyperliquid into the U.S. regulatory system.

“I understand that Mike is also working to bring Hyperliquid into the United States in a fully compliant and legal fashion,” Trump said. “Working very hard on that. We would really like to see it.”

The White House push comes as federal agencies advance standalone regulatory changes while legislative action remains stalled. The SEC proposed rules on Tuesday to exempt specific digital token offerings from standard securities registration, creating a regulatory path for token sales as Congress prepares for its September vote on the Clarity Act.

The summit also served as a preview for the inaugural meeting of the CFTC’s Innovation Advisory Committee on Thursday. Although the discussion touched on adjacent technologies like prediction markets, White House officials limited attendance strictly to crypto and exchange executives, omitting representatives from platforms like Kalshi and Polymarket.